What is Salvation? | How it is described in the Bible?
A quick question about salvation, How many of you are saved today as per the bible? You know you are saved. You are sure of it. Ok. Good. Very good.
Now here is my follow-up question. Do you, do I, do we, really fully understand from the bible perspective what salvation is all about?
Salvation in the Bible
We believe that the Bible, the God-inspired book, is still valid and current today. God says in it that he loves us and wants to have fellowship with us. But through arrogance and egoism, there was a separation between God and every human being. The Bible calls this separation sin.
In order to overcome them, God sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world so that he could take on the consequence of our sins, namely the judgment on the part of God, as a representative, and thus restore man’s connection and communication with God.
What God has given to us when we put our faith in Christ?
People can’t get enough teaching on this specific topic. And when we use terms like Armageddon, Millennium, the Second Coming, the rapture and the Antichrist and so forth oh, we just want to know everything we can know about those things. And that is fantastic.
Words like Regeneration, Salvation, Justification, and Adoption are the big words in the Bible. And every one of those words I just mentioned is a part of what happens when a man or a woman puts their faith in Jesus Christ. So, let’s talk about this incredible gift God has given to each of us that we call salvation.
Read more: 5 Types of Crowns in The Bible
What Salvation is? How do you get it?
The very word salvation says it all. Now we have used the word. You are probably even approached or someone came up to you with a wild-eyed look on their face and say, “Are you saved?” They perpetually need to say it quite word.
It is not, “Are you saved?” But, “Friend, are you saved right now I am asking to ask you.” What is wrong with you? “Nothing is wrong with me.” And it seems a little overly dramatic, doesn’t it. I am saved.
Do we have to use that term? I meant it not like I was out drowning at sea or I was in a burning house and I had to be saved. I was a reasonably good person and now I have put my faith in Jesus. And no question I am going to heaven. No.
Saved is the perfect term to use because your fate was worse than being out at sea. It was worse than being in a burning house. You literally were pulled out of the flames by Jesus Christ Himself when you were saved. It is a big deal. A really big deal.
1. Bible Salvation: God Forgives You
First of all, when you are saved, in other words when you put your faith in Jesus Christ that covers your past. God forgives you of all your sin. And you need to know that when you put your faith in Jesus the devil is going to be there to attack there.
And he will whisper in your ear the same thing that he said to our first parents in the garden. “Did God really say what you thought He said?” You remember. He came to Adam and Eve and challenged God.
Read More: Does God Speak to Us in Dreams
Let me ask you a question
And in the same way, after you have put your faith in Christ, he will come to you and say, “Do you really believe God has forgiven a creep like you? Do you really believe that you are going to go to heaven when you die?
Well, you are not worthy. You don’t deserve it. You are not ok and therefore forth.
And I will address those issues in a moment. But he will challenge it. And it is then that we base our salvation not on our feelings in the moment but on the factor what the Word of God says, And when you put your faith in Christ the Bible is adamant in saying you are saved. It is your present possession.
1 John 5:10 says, “Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony.”
Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
John 5:24 says, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
He doesn’t say will hope to have or maybe we will get some day. He says, “If you believe in Me you have eternal life.” And one of the most often quoted assurance verses.
2. Bible Salvation: God Justify You
Goodwill yet saves me in the future. But what does it mean to be saved? What does that encompass? What does that include? Well, let’s unpack it. Let’s unwrap this thing.
Open it up and lay all of the pieces out before us and see how salvation actually is described in the bible.
Romans 5:1-2 says, “Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”
3. Bible Salvation: God Regenerates You
Paul tells us that we are justified. Now before I get to that very important word let me contrast it with another word, we need to know about regeneration.
When you trust Jesus, you are regenerated. To be saved is to experience regeneration. We use interchangeable terms like born again, believe in, saved, and regenerated. So, when you put your faith in Christ, God has regenerated you. You have passed from darkness to light. From the power of Satan to God. From hell to heaven.
Now contrast that with this word in Romans 5. The word justification. Regeneration has got to do with what takes place within the believer’s heart. And justification concerns our standing before God. Regeneration is God’s answer to the matter of religious death. Justifications are the answer to the problem of guilt.
First of all, to be justified means that you are forgiven of all of your sins. When you put your faith in Jesus all of your sins and guilt will be completely wiped out. When you believe in Jesus you are forgiven.
Let me ask you a question
How many of you have ever done something you are ashamed of? Yeah. Me too. I have said things I wish I had not said. Things I wish I could take back. But I can’t.
And you say, “Well that is the end of that.” No. Actually, it isn’t. Because when a person is justified God forgives this thing.
Acts 13:38 says, “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.”
Everyone who trusts in Him is free from all guilt and is declared righteous or we justified—something the law could never do.
Hebrews 10:17 says, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
Jeremiah 50:20 says, “In those days they’ll look high and low for a sign of Israel’s guilt and they will find nothing. They will search the nook and canyon a trace of Judah’s sin. Again, they will find nothing. These people that I’ve saved will start out with a clean slate.”
I love that. Wouldn’t you love a clean slate? Wouldn’t like a fresh start? That is what happens when you believe in Jesus.
4. Bible Salvation: Access by Faith
Micah 7:18-19 says, “Where is there another God like You who pardons the sin of the survivors among His people. He does not stay angry with His people forever. He takes our sins and throws them into the depths of the oceans.”
Romans 5:1-2 says, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith.”
I want you to underline those three words, access by faith. Peace of God takes care of our past. He cannot hold our sins against us. Access to God takes care of our future. We are able to return to Him anytime for the assistance that we’d like. And the hope of the glory of God takes care of the future knowing I am justified and I have free access into His presence. There is so much that God has done for me.
5. Bible Salvation: By Adoption
Oh, there is a lot more. Not only has God justified me. Not only has God forgive me. God has adopted me into His family. He has adopted me.
Romans 11:17 says, “If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.”
Regeneration has to do with a change in nature. Justification must do with a change in standing. Adoption must do with a change in position. After I am adopted into God’s family, I become His kid like I was born into that family.
Ephesians 1:5 says, “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family and bring us to Himself through Christ because this gave Him great pleasure.”
Slavery was common in biblical times. You could go down to the slave market and purchase a man or a woman to work for you. So here is the picture that is used in the word redeem because that word there redeems in Galatians 4:4 means to buy out of a slave market.
God wants a Relationship with You
Jesus Christ went all the way down to the mart. There you have informed the block. He paid the worth for you. And so, He took you and marched you straight all the way down to the court and adopted you as His son.
Thus, not solely did He forgive you and pardon you as a slave and take you out of that bondage that you just were in, on the other hand, He placed you in His home as His own son or his own female offspring. I can stand in awe of a God who would have the power and the desire to do something like that for me. But by adopting me God is basically saying don’t just stand in awe of me. Come close to me. By adoption, He is saying I want a relationship with you.
When Jesus was in Gethsemane and He was sweating as it were great drops of blood according to Lukas, He contemplated the horrors of Calvary Jesus, the Son of the Father, said, “Abba Father.” It is tenderness, closeness and intimacy. And here is what the Bible is saying. Not only can Jesus say that to the Father. You can now too.
Remember after He was resurrected, He said to Mary, “I now go to My God and your God, to My Father and your Father. “
Bible Verse
Galatians 4:4 says, “When the time was just right, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, to redeem those that are under the law, that we might receive the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, ‘Abba Father.”
It was unthinkable to a Jew living in this time to address God Almighty as Father. But this is what happens through the new covenant. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I come to this relationship with God where He has adopted me into His family and can cry, “Abba Father.”
And as a matter of fact, he adopted me and hence my name. So, because of that, even though he is not my biological father, I think of him as my father to this day. And he is now in heaven.
I am glad he adopted me. But it is even greater to know that I have been adopted by my Father in heaven. And He has adopted you as well. He has adopted all of us.
Facts about Salvation in the Bible
Three important things you need to know about being adopted by God.
1. God Understands You
When you were adopted by God and you call Him Father you need to know that God understands you.
Psalm 103:13 says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him, for He knows how we are formed. He remembers we are dust.”
Parents know their children. Don’t they? And we look at our kids and we know what’s up. We know when they are doing well, when they are not doing so well, when they have done something wrong. They get this look on their face. We know these things. We understand. And we care. Even when our children have failed, we care for them. We hurt for them. Their pain becomes our pain.
If they are hurting, we are hurting. We want the best for them. And look out for their welfare. and think about them. We pray for them and lose sleep over them. Don’t we? So, we have compassion for our children. How much more our Father has compassion on us because we have been adopted.
2. God Takes Care of You
Because you have been adopted by God, He will take care of you.
Matthew 6:32 says, “The pagans run after all of the things that this world offers, but your Father knows you need them.”
Jesus was talking about nonbelievers who only think about what they are going to eat, what they are going to drink, and what they are going to wear. Isn’t it funny? It is 2000 years later and that is still all nonbelievers think about.
He says, “You know what? Your Father is aware of what you’ve got would like these things. Here is what you need to focus on. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things (what you will eat, drink, and wear) will be added to you.” God will take care of you. You are His child.
3. God will Bless You
Your Father loves to bless you.
Matthew 7:11 says, “If you then are evil known how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him.”
Luke 12:32 says, “Fear not little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give to you the kingdom.”
Your Father is not stingy. I don’t know about your earthly father. But your heavenly Father is generous. Your heavenly Father loves to lavish things on you.
Your heavenly Father loves to bless you. Just like maybe you like to bless your own kids. Lord loves to bless us. This is a great thing. We are justified, forgiven and adopted. It has all been given to us by God.
What should I do with Salvation as per the Bible?
The great thing is called salvation. Should I just put it up on a shelf and look at it and admire it? We need to explore it, understand it and appreciate it. But then you know what? We need to work it out. We need to work out our salvation.
I didn’t say work for your salvation from a biblical perspective. It is a gift from God to you. But you need to work it out in your life.
Philippians 2: 12–13 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Work out your own salvation. You know you have to work it out for yourself. Someone else can’t work it out for you.
Salvation: Inspect yourself
1. Confess to God
If you are a Christian you should confess Jesus Christ is Lord.
1 John 4:15 says, “If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God.”
You should confess that Christ is Lord. Have you done that?
You say, “Well people know I am a Christian by the way that I live. I try to be moral, compassionate and caring.” Those things are nice. But there needs to be a moment where you say, “I believe in Jesus Christ. I confess Him as my Saviour and Lord.”
That is one of the reasons we call people forward publicly in many of our meetings. We don’t believe that walking down an aisle makes them Christian. But we believe that if they will confess Christ before men, He will confess them before the Father. And this is a way to openly profess that their faith is genuine.
Did you confess Jesus as Lord?
2. Obey God
Do you obey the commands of Christ? Do you obey the commands of Christ?
1 John 5:3 says, “This is love for God, to obey His commands and His commands are not burdensome.”
See this is the problem for some. They say they are a Christian but they disregard what the Bible says regarding salvation and don’t obey God’s commands.
Jesus said in John 15, “You are My friends if you do whatsoever, I command you.”
He didn’t say, “You are My friends if you do whatsoever you are comfortable with.” Or, “You are My friends if you do whatsoever you personally agree with.” Or, “You are My friends if you do whatsoever you find easy.”
No. “You are My friends if you do whatsoever, I command you.”
3. Obey the Word of God
If you are really a Christian you will love and obey the Word of God.
1 John 2:5 says, “If anyone obeys His Word, God’s love is complete in him, and that is how we know we are in Him.”
How am I going to obey the Word if I don’t read the Word? So first have to read God’s Word to know what His commandments are. And then I can live accordingly. That’s why Bible memorisation is thus vital to get salvation.
Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy Word have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You.”
What a great thing for all of us especially you that are young with such active minds to fill them with the Word of God. And these Scriptures will be there for your lifetime.
4. Be Sinless
If you are really a Christian you will be unhappy or miserable when you are sinning.
1 John 3:9 says, “Everyone who has been born of God does not continue to sin. Because God’s seed remains in him, he is not able to habitually sin because He has been born of God.”
The Bible does not teach that if you are a Christian you will be sinless. But it does teach that if you are a real follower of Jesus you will sinless. The Bible even says, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is noting us.”
But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for godless behaviour. The fact of the matter is that true believer should be unhappy when they are sinning.
If you can go and do something God has told you not to do without any discomfort, without any conviction in your heart, I suggest to you in you may not be a child of God.
You should be uncomfortable when you are living in sin. And if you are comfortable there, something is not right. Also, we are told that if we are really saved, we will keep ourselves from the devil. Keep ourselves from the devil.
Bible Verse
1 John 5:18 says, “Whoever is born of God does not habitually sin, and he that has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him”.
Now when John wrote that when the child of God keeps himself, he wasn’t suggesting that Christians keep themselves saved. The Scripture clearly teaches that it is God that keeps us.
1 Peter 1:5 says, “We are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Prayer
We are kept by God. However, the Bible also teaches we should keep ourselves in the love of God according to Jude. We don’t keep ourselves saved but we do keep ourselves safe. There is a difference. God saves me. God keeps me saved.
When Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And then He went on to say, “Deliver us from evil.”
He is saying, “Pray Lord, keep me from the evil one.” God does the saving but you need to stay as close to Him as you possibly can.
5. Love your Neighbour
If you are really saved you will love other Christians.
1 John 5:1, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loves the Father loves His child as well.”
There might be a relationship with a person that when you are with that person it is not like they are hostile to your beliefs but there is something about what they say and what they do that makes the world a little more attractive. That makes your faith a little less important and it begins to diminish your commitment.
Spend most of your time with Christians.
Now I am not saying you should isolate yourself from the world and never have a conversation that does not know the Lord. We want to influence and affect people. We want to call others to Christ. But yet we want to be careful to not be dragged down either.
Do you love Christians? Do you love to be around Christians?
2 Timothy 2:22 says, “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lust. Follow anything that makes you want to do what is right. Pursue faith and love and peace and enjoy the companionship of those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
I know there are weird people in the church. Let’s be truthful. Do you know why? The church is a place that says to anyone you can believe and become a part of the family of God. You know when I was in school, I hung around cool people.
Do you know why? Because thought I was cool too. I only wanted to be around people that I liked that I related to that were like me. And then I became a Christian and all of a sudden here are all of these strange people. And I am related to them now.
But guess what? They looked at me and said I was a strange person they were related to. One day it dawned on me I wasn’t as cool as I thought I was and we all were those strange people that were welcomed into God’s family.
Start your Journey with Jesus
God will use people that are different than you to bring you closer to Him. And they will build you up and you will build them up. And there is something wonderful when we gather together for fellowship.
I meet someone I have never met before and we begin to talk about the things of the Lord and there is that immediate fellowship and connection.
It is like we have known each other for our whole lives. I think, “Only the Lord could do this.” That special bond. Spend time with God’s people. If you are saved you will want to do this.
According to the holy bible, in this salvation God forgives me of all of my sin. He places the righteousness of Christ in my account and adopts me into his family.
He gives me peace and saved me, saving me and will yet save me. Why would anyone say no to that? And yet here it is offered to us as a gift. And to reject it is so incredibly stupid.
God says, “Salvation. I bought it for you, purchased it for you and will give it to you. Will you take it?” What is holding you back from receiving this salvation?
“Live good life and your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds you will.”
The only way you are going to be saved and forgiven is by taking hold of what God has already done for you because Jesus died on the cross. He paid the price for your sin. He rose again from the dead. And He stands at the door of your life and He knocks. And if you will hear His voice and open the door you can be saved. It can be yours now. Not a month from now. Not a year from now.
The personal relationship with God through prayer then gives us a life of inner peace and grounds hope for an afterlife with Jesus Christ in heaven.
Conclusion
Start a life with God. Talk to Jesus Christ personally in prayer and tell him what moves you. He will help you and give you eternal life.
You can leave here knowing you are saved. And I want to end this by giving you that opportunity as we invite you to Christ in this closing moment. Let’s pray.
Father thank You for the promise of salvation. Thank You for all that it is and all that it does. All that You have given to us who have believed in You. Now help those Lord that does not have salvation or are yet to receive it. To receive it as a gift from You Lord we pray. Amen
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